SEAN CARROLL

Sean Carroll is an artist working in photography and video based in New York City. His works have been shown in exhibitions in New York, Detroit, Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, and North Carolina. He was awarded a Young Artist Grant from the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Sean was an artist-in-residence at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York City, recently screened a new video project at Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, NY, and participated in Flash Powder Projects in Highlands, NC. He received an MFA in Photography from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and a BA in Visual Media from American University in Washington, DC.

Boardwalk, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Upper Mesa Falls Overlook, Caribou-Targhee National Forest, ID

Parklife

For some years I have been spending more of my leisure time visiting and documenting federal and state park and forest land, places in America where the public is allowed and encouraged to visit the ‘wilderness’. Since my family never really went on the traditional cross-country car trip when I was a kid, I’ve been making various journeys to the places I missed; the places, near and far, that I used to spot in my father’s tattered road atlas. As an adult, my nostalgic interest in exploring parks and forests has evolved into a fascination with the quirky way that Americans vacation in nature. The parks, which obviously set aside dramatic natural wonders for our enjoyment, also generally include modern conveniences like benches for rest, restrooms, concession stands, campgrounds, marinas, and hotels. While there as visitors, we walk along specially marked paths through the wilderness and snap photos from designated vista points. Life in public parks is a curious, non-commercial arrangement of government workers, generic signage, busy parking lots, sunburned kids, and frustrated parents. As I’ve been participating in this rite of American vacationing, I’ve become amused and enamored by how we interact with the wild and the infrastructure we put in place to do so. Parklife aims to capture it in all of its oddity.

SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT...

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